Why hasn't TV3 swept the Copa del Rey?

That TV3 could broadcast the Copa del Rey final this Saturday is excellent news, because it marks the return of football premium on Catalan public television after years and years of watching the most coveted sport move to pay channels. And we must congratulate the broadcaster for being the most popular channel among Catalans when it came to watching the match. However, it would be a mistake to fall into the euphoria and triumphalism that come with audiences in the millions. TV3 was the choice of 34.9% of Catalans, but 30.1% opted for La 1. Expressed in football terms, we're closer to the heart-stopping 3-2 victory in this latest Clásico than to the victory every Barça fan dreams of.

Audience meters are cold and offer only quantitative data. They suggest what the masses of television viewers are watching, but they don't reveal why they do it or their motivations. Therefore, we can only speculate about the reasons for this close result. One factor that occurs to me is that La 1 has long been committed to spending huge amounts on sports rights. By way of comparison, what it dedicates to purchasing the Olympic Games for a few weeks is equivalent to almost double the entire annual budget specifically for the 3Cat platform. And, therefore, viewers had internalized that the game should be theirs. If this is the case, it will mean that TV3 does not have sufficient resources to transcend its natural granaries or reach potential new viewers. But there is an even worse perspective or hypothesis: that language has been a barrier for a third of our fellow citizens. TV3 started with the advantage of proximity and closer identification with Barça. If this implies a margin of only four points or so in theshareRegarding the other paradigm, it means that either TV3 is weaker than we think, or the language is. Or, gulp, the country.